The Ascent
36” x 24”
Acrylic on canvas
$1200

ART IN THE WORKPLACE #44  …ON NOW

Venue: McMaster Innovation Park – Art in the Workplace

Exhibition run: Mar 26, 2026 to Jun 24, 2026
Opening reception: Mar 26, 2025 from 7-9 PM

Location: 175 Longwood Rd S, Hamilton, ON, L8P 0A1

I stripped away nature’s gentle facade to reveal something more raw and honest. Those creepy lines threading through the landscape? They’re nature’s anxiety made visible – the tension between what we see and what’s really happening beneath the surface.

There are mornings when the world tilts just slightly off its axis, when familiar places wear unfamiliar faces. This captures one such moment – a lakeside scene where color has abandoned its post and strange geometries thread through the mist like memories of something that hasn’t happened yet.

Some places hold their secrets close, whispering them only to those who know how to listen. The marsh has shed its green disguise, revealing something raw and urgent underneath.

These are not disruptions – they’re translations of a language the earth speaks when it thinks no one is paying attention.

 

“WHEN THE LINES SHIFTED”
By Anita Thomas
Acrylic on canvas
36″ x 36″
$1900

Finished and put in its Little Black Frame. The collage, made of handmade collage papers, is mounted on a wooden panel trimmed in gold. A clear layer of resin coats the artwork, bringing out its colours.

Some of the many handmade collage paper made during a session. Some made it into this artwork, some did not. They were painted with acrylic paints and deco-foil, some were also made with gel print techniques.

Here are the selected collage papers for this artwork and some have started to be cut and glued into the collaged face.

Acrylic painted paper embellished with gold deco-foil.

The collage is complete and the papers have been embellished further. It is now ready to mount on the prepared board.

Mounted and ready for resin. The resin table has been levelled, checked, and double checked.

The resin layer has been poured, leveled, bubbles popped and it is now ready to cure overnight. It will be covered with a large, clear bin to protect it from dust or other airbourne debris while it cures.

“KEEPER OF SECRETS”
By Anita Thomas
Collage with handmade papers, resin finish
10″ x 10″
Donation

By Anita Thomas
Acrylic on canvas
36″ x 24″
$1200

Before anything else—there were words.

Whispers of strength, persistence, memory.

This is where “The Ascent” begins: a white canvas inscribed with what endures.

What we carry into the dark shapes what we bring into the light.

Every mark that follows will grow from this silent foundation.

Lines begin to divide the canvas—

not to separate, but to open.

This fissure is not collapse.

It’s the beginning of a way through.

 

What we call a break is sometimes the start of a becoming.

A figure takes shape, her back to us.

She doesn’t flee the dark—

she climbs through it.

Pushed by pressure, drawn by light.

 

This is not escape.

This is emergence.

They rise out of stone, half-seen, wholly felt.

The women who came before—

silent witnesses, lost names.

They didn’t make it out, but they still carry her.

Still are her.

 

We never rise alone.

Light breaks above.

She reaches, braced by everything below—

by pressure, memory, loss, and grit.

The fracture becomes a pathway.

The weight becomes momentum.

 

This is what resilience looks like.

 

We never rise alone.

This is the moment strength takes form.

Not despite the past—but because of it.

Not avoiding struggle—but shaped by it.

We don’t just climb—we are lifted.

“The Ascent” continues my exploration of the space between surface and depth. This work builds on my previous series examining the contrast between stark domesticity above ground and the complex reality below. Here, that underground space becomes a site of transformation rather than entrapment.

The faces in the rock represent women who came before—those who didn’t make it through, but whose presence still matters. Their stories may be lost individually, but collectively they form the foundation that supports this moment of breakthrough.

The ascending figure isn’t escaping the past—she’s being lifted by it. What appears to be a fracture becomes an opening, a place where pressure creates possibility.

Resilience isn’t about avoiding difficulty but about meeting it with your whole self. “The Ascent” captures the moment when accumulated strength finally finds its expression—when the weight of what came before becomes the force that propels you forward. We rise not despite our history, but because of it.

“Lothbrok”
By Anita Thomas
Encaustic on wood panel
16″ x 12″
$450

Location: TBA

“Lothbrok”
By Anita Thomas
Encaustic on wood panel
16″ x 12″
$450

Location: TBA

“TORVI”
By Anita Thomas
Encaustic on wood panel
16″ x 12″
$450

Location: TBA

“TORVI”
By Anita Thomas
Encaustic on wood panel
16″ x 12″
$450

Location: TBA

Encaustic

By Anita Thomas
Acrylic on canvas
36″ x 24″
$1200

Before anything else—there were words.

Whispers of strength, persistence, memory.

This is where “The Ascent” begins: a white canvas inscribed with what endures.

What we carry into the dark shapes what we bring into the light.

Every mark that follows will grow from this silent foundation.

Lines begin to divide the canvas—

not to separate, but to open.

This fissure is not collapse.

It’s the beginning of a way through.

 

What we call a break is sometimes the start of a becoming.

A figure takes shape, her back to us.

She doesn’t flee the dark—

she climbs through it.

Pushed by pressure, drawn by light.

 

This is not escape.

This is emergence.

They rise out of stone, half-seen, wholly felt.

The women who came before—

silent witnesses, lost names.

They didn’t make it out, but they still carry her.

Still are her.

 

We never rise alone.

Light breaks above.

She reaches, braced by everything below—

by pressure, memory, loss, and grit.

The fracture becomes a pathway.

The weight becomes momentum.

 

This is what resilience looks like.

 

We never rise alone.

This is the moment strength takes form.

Not despite the past—but because of it.

Not avoiding struggle—but shaped by it.

We don’t just climb—we are lifted.

“The Ascent” continues my exploration of the space between surface and depth. This work builds on my previous series examining the contrast between stark domesticity above ground and the complex reality below. Here, that underground space becomes a site of transformation rather than entrapment.

The faces in the rock represent women who came before—those who didn’t make it through, but whose presence still matters. Their stories may be lost individually, but collectively they form the foundation that supports this moment of breakthrough.

The ascending figure isn’t escaping the past—she’s being lifted by it. What appears to be a fracture becomes an opening, a place where pressure creates possibility.

Resilience isn’t about avoiding difficulty but about meeting it with your whole self. “The Ascent” captures the moment when accumulated strength finally finds its expression—when the weight of what came before becomes the force that propels you forward. We rise not despite our history, but because of it.